"We are glad that we have already met the legal requirement for the percentage of women on the boards of public limited companies, and we hope this can help to stimulate the work of increasing the share of women in the Group as a whole," says President and CEO Terje R. Venold.

"Our industry is traditionally male-dominated and we see that many women who have studied engineering choose to work for consultant engineers. There are probably many reasons for this, and we contractors should be able to do more to change this situation," Mr. Venold adds.

The percentage of women is rising in several of Veidekke's divisions, and there are women in managerial positions in some of these divisions One of Veidekke's initiatives is to call in all the women applicants for project-related jobs from the technical university, engineering colleges and schools of economics in Norway for an interview. This helps to give more women an opportunity for a career at Veidekke and it also gives Veidekke the chance to inform them about the career opportunities in the Group.

"Up until quite recently we contractors have indirectly only been able to recruit new employees from half of the adult population, and that does not seem right," says Mr. Venold. "Not only does this limit our access to new employees, but what's worse is that it also means that we let many talented people slip through our fingers. It is therefore good to see a change taking place in this respect," he concludes.

Veidekke's Board of Directors already includes Ms Kari Gjesteby, Executive Director of the Norwegian Library for the Blind and Dyslexic, and Ms Hilde M. Aasheim, Hydro ASA's Executive Vice President for Leadership and Culture. The salaried employees' representative is Project Manager Birte Almeland.

For further information, please contact:

Terje R. Venold, President & CEO,

tel. + 47 21 05 77 01, mobile + 47 905 82 323

Torkel Backelin, Executive Vice President, Strategy/HR

tel: +47 21 05 77 03, mobile +47 909 23 738

Kai Krüger Henriksen, Executive Vice President Communications,

tel. + 47 21 05 77 04, mobile + 47 905 19 360